Network printing problem XP/Vista

Question

Ok, I'm about at wit's end here and need help. I have my home network set up after much frustration. It includes an XP Home computer which is connected by ethernet to my wireless router. Also connected to the XP Home computer is my A920 printer and two external hard drives.

The second computer on the network is running XP Professional. This is connected to the router wirelessly and can print through the XP Home computer, share files, and all that jazz with no issues at all.

The issue is with the last computer running Vista Home Professional. I have been able to network it with the other two, sharing files and accessing the external hard drives on the XP Home computer. I can't, however, use my Dell A920 printer on my XP Home computer from my Vista Home Professional computer. I keep getting a Dell window that pops up and says "Communication Not Available. The printer cannot communicate with the computer." I can print from my Vista Home Premium computer to the Dell A920 if I hook directly to it with USB.

I have disabled all firewalls, set up the printer as a Local Printer with the network path as the local port, all computers are working in the same workgroup, and I have the same logon name and password on the Vista and XP Home computers. I also have the latest Vista drivers from Dell for my Dell A920.

Please tell me that someone has figured this out, because it is driving me up the wall.

Rich

Message Edited by rochs77 on 04-08-2007 10:32 AM

jmwills · Answer

If it were me, I would try and put the printer on the XP Pro machine and make sure you are using Advanced File & print Sharing (Turn Off Simple File Sharing).   This would make XP Ultimate more compatible with the file systems.  By the way, can you share a file between the Vista and XP machines?

rochs77 · Answer

JM, thanks for the reply. I have been told in the past to disable "Simple File Sharing" because it causes more problems than anything else. How do I find that feature in XP Home?

And yes, I can share files between all three computers without an issue. Vista doesn't seem to like to see the computer name of the XP Home machine, but if I hook up to it using its static IP I have no issues. The Vista machine sees the XP Pro machine name and everything else just great.

Other than that, especially from reading other posts, I may have to chalk this up to Vista growing pains and just plug in the printer every time I want to use it on the Vista machine. Kind of a pain, especially since I would hope that all of this stuff would be compatible being built on NT and all.

If you have any other ideas, and could let me know about how to disable Simple File Sharing that would be great.

Rich

rochs77 · Answer

JM my friend, I'm with you. I like the Vista GUI and most features, but some of this obscure networking stuff is making me rip my hair out. It really, really shouldn't be this difficult. I'll try sharing off of the XP pro machine and see how that works. I'll post back and let you know.

Rich

jmwills · Answer

XP Home only has Simple File sharing therefore that's why I say put the printer on the XP Pro  box.  Just a hunch but you are asking both of the other systems to 'downshift' so to speak with regards to permissions and Vista is probably getting confused.   So, I would hare the printer off the XP pro machine with NTFS permissions (no simple file sharing) give 'Everyone' full rights to the printer (as long as you are beind a router) and see what gives.   Post back and let me know how it works.  I gave up on Vista for  the time being simply becasue after 10 hours a day fighting these things in a secure environment, the last thing I want to do is come home and start all over again!!

tchxplornet · Answer

:smileyvery-happy:Hi there. I had similar problems with my network printer. I finally tried a program called network magic beta version and all is well. Easy set up for file sharing & printer sharing. It takes all the complications out of running a system & lets you get down to what you intended to do in first place. Print,Print Print & prnt some more.:smileyvery-happy:

bugmenot0 · Answer

I was having this same problem... my laptop (Vista) would not print to the network/shared printer that is hooked up to my desktop (XP)... This link helped me out http://www.microsoft.com/technet/network/evaluate/vista_fp.mspx

I have McAfee on both computers plus windows fire wall and my 2Wire homeportal has a fire wall. I had to turn off windows firewall on both computers, left McAfee's firewall alone and made the following changes to the desktop firewall through 2Wire's homepage:

[The following was copied from the above link]

If you are using a firewall other than Windows Firewall, you must configure the firewall to allow incoming network discovery and file and printer sharing traffic.

For network discovery of computers running Windows XP and for file and printer sharing for both Windows Vista and Windows XP, you must allow the following incoming traffic:

• UDP 137

• UDP 138

• TCP 139

• TCP 445

Good luck! I hope this helps as I know this is a pain trying to figure it out.

jmwills · Answer

Especially with three firewalls running.

Networking, Internet, & Bluetooth

Network printing problem XP/Vista

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